The kids are alright

Mind/Shift published an article the other day about a school district in Cincinnati that has been turning over the responsibility of tech integrators to students with great success. How awesome! I wonder why more school districts are not creating programs like this because most teachers will readily agree that when tech problems arise, its always the younger generation who have the answers. In fact, when I was attending EdCampNYC a few months ago, several teachers offered up solutions to getting to sites blocked by school districts: Ask a student to get around it! Hopefully more schools jump on this band wagon and realize that one way to get students excited about learning, is to empower them with tools they want to use.

Yesterday we had a visit with a group of students from MicroInterns who are lucky enough to be taking charge of their technology education and learning how to maximize all of the tech tools around. As part of a workshop on iPhone app User Interaction, the MicroInterns created a tutorial using ShowMe about what they had learned. Afterwards, they graciously made themselves available so we pick their brains and ask for their feedback on the app. As with the 4th graders at UNIS, these amazing students had great ideas and thought about design and technology in an extremely astute way. Their fluency in technology and ideas for how it can help us ensured me that the future is in good hands!